The epidemic of encephalitis is being repeated every year, not only at Muzaffapur but at many places in India. The govt and the health authority are sitting tight, only because they say its viral encephalitis and viruses are never found in the culture. They should take lesson from the history , about fifty years back there was an epidemic of phocomelia in west Germany. Phocomelia means sealed extremities, it is a congenital deformity. Until 1961 the public took a largely romantic interest in development and introduction of new drugs.
In 1961 a major breakthrough did occur, a man discovered that introduction was more hazardous then he has previously believed, the thalidomide disaster aroused public opinion, forced government to intervene in the process of drug introduction and all concerned with this process got a salutary shock , our attitude to casual use of drugs.Drugs can never be the same since thalidomide.
I feel there maybe some error in the new drug introduction in the market. Most west German clinic had no cases for 10 years since 1959 , in 1959 in 10 clinics 17 were seen, in 1960 126, in 1961 477.The outbreak seemed confined to Germany and this steady increase made a virus infection such a s rubella seem unlikely as a cause. Radioactive fallout was considered and so was X-ray exposure of the mother,hormone, food, food preservative and contraceptive.
One doctor investigating his patient retrospectively with a questionnaire found that 20% reported taking thalidomide in early pregnancy. He questioned the patients again and then 50% admitted taking it. In our day to day practice we find that patient seldom speaks the truth, they focus on different point because they think this was not the causative factor, so taking proper history is not always possible. In 1961 in a paediatric conference somebody whispered that an unnamed drug can be a causative factor and all conscious doctor started looking at the past drug history of their patient. In a series of 46 cases of phocomelia, it was found that 41 mothers had certainly taken thalidomide and of 300 mothers of normal babies none had taken thalidomide between the 4thand 9th week of pregnancy.
So we must think of some drugs and probably they are some tranquilizers and anti-psychotic drugs.